1. Technical Field
Embodiments described herein are related to the field of computing systems and, more particularly, to managing shared memory in a system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of electronic devices are now in daily use with consumers. Particularly, computing devices have become ubiquitous. As used herein, a computing device may refer to any electronic device that includes a processor, memory, a user interface and a display. Examples of personal computing devices may include desktop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones that combine phone functionality and other computing functionality, tablets, laptops, net tops, smart watches, wearable electronics, etc.
Some computing devices include a main memory that may be under control of a main processor. Other processors, such as various coprocessing units for example, that may utilize the main memory may be required to send memory commands via the main processor. Such a memory architecture may require the main processor to be in a fully operational mode in order to process memory commands. If the main processor is in a reduced power mode at the time a coprocessor submits a memory command, then delays may be experienced while the main processor recovers from the reduced power mode to process the memory commands. Furthermore, additional power may be consumed since the main processor is in a full operational mode to process the commands.
Other systems may avoid the delays and power consumption increases by including a second memory for use by one or more coprocessors. A coprocessor may be capable of directly accessing this second memory, thereby eliminating a need for the main processor to recover from the reduced power mode. Implementing this architecture, however, may increase system cost and increase a size of a circuit board used.